There's an interview on GamesIndustry International talking with Ole Schreiner, the new CEO of Funcom, discussing The Secret World and the MMOG's subscription model versus the free-to-play scheme that many feel is the only viable future for such games. He says they considered F2P, and while a lot of how the game was created was based on subscriptions, they have the "tools" to make the switch should the decide it's necessary:

The Secret World was developed as a subscription-based game and the decisions made during planning and production was based on that business model. If we had designed The Secret World as a free-to-play offering we would have made some different decisions along the way, for example in terms of how the in-game store works and how our post-launch content plan would play out. We tried leaving our options open during development so that we could launch with a different model should we have decided during development that's what we wanted, but eventually we did settle on the subscription model and that's what informed much of the game's design.

That said we definitely have the tools to turn The Secret World into a free-to-play game - or even hybrid - should we decide to do that somewhere down the line. We did that with Age of Conan with significant success. We all know that trends and expectations in the gaming business, and perhaps particularly the MMO genre, is evolving quickly, and we're regularly re-evaluating our business model against the changing currents of the marketplace and our own player base as well. Not only in terms of The Secret World, but also our future games.

Secret World was pretty boring. The puzzles and stuff were OK, but the combat was min-max where they kept nerfing the good skills while in beta. It got pretty tedious and annoying to even play when your abilities would become more and more worthless overtime only to have to pick up the new favorite and have it happen again.

Plus, 24 hours is not enough time to evaluate Secret World unless they are giving you 24 hours play time and not a 24 hour window to play. The beginning zones were much better done than the next couple zones. Much like Age of Conan and how Tortage was a major deception when it came to overall gameplay.

Standard Funcom playbook once a game tanks, is to announce a new title, into which all serious development resources will be placed, rendering existing titles to languish in development limbo, with no significant fixes or expansion.

saluk wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 13:43:My problem with p2p is less a matter of how much I am spending, and more a psychological matter. Look at the last week of my GW2 time. I barely played, I've been busy with work etc. I may be a bit busy to play much this week too. Right now, I am still loving the game every time I play it, but I'm NOT playing often enough to really justify paying every month. Towards the end of the month, I would have to evaluate whether I want to keep paying for something I'm not really using.

On the other hand, I've filled up my character slots. At any point in the next few weeks I might decide to make a new character and buy some slots. While I am putting money in the cash shop anyway, I might buy some other things just for fun. I can justify that a lot easier than I can paying money for a game I'm not spending that many hours on.

The secret world was fun for the first month, but I unsubbed. I didn't unsub because I wasn't having fun, I unsubbed because I wasn't playing. If I want to play again next month, which I might, I will have to consider whether it's worth the hassle to reactivate on the off chance that I play for a day and get distracted away from it again.

Because of Guild Wars 2 I'm not playing a subscription game ever again. They've proven you can have an amazing world class MMORPG without the monthly fleecing while avoiding the pay2win syndrome. Rift was the only MMO that ever delivered on what all pay2play companies promised us by saying that we needed to pay a monthly fee so we could have continual content updates.

More importantly though, I don't have to feel guilty when I decide to spend my time elsewhere.

As for TSW, Let's all hope that when TSW goes free2play they don't follow the horrible AoC model.

I don't pay per month. I have no problems paying for a game, ONCE, and that's it. No monthly nickel & dime for me, please.

That's me as well. I like don't repeating charges and avoid them whenever I can. I have no car note, I have no credit card debt, and I even use a Tracfone so I can avoid yet another monthly bill. I don't even have cable or satellite TV.

This comment was edited on Sep 18, 2012, 07:51.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

The problem isn't that The Secret World is worth the subscription price, it's that it's only worth the subscription price for one maybe two months. I like the game, even with its awkward combat mechanics, I'm just not willing to pay the entry fee.

saluk wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 13:43:My problem with p2p is less a matter of how much I am spending, and more a psychological matter. Look at the last week of my GW2 time. I barely played, I've been busy with work etc. I may be a bit busy to play much this week too. Right now, I am still loving the game every time I play it, but I'm NOT playing often enough to really justify paying every month. Towards the end of the month, I would have to evaluate whether I want to keep paying for something I'm not really using.

On the other hand, I've filled up my character slots. At any point in the next few weeks I might decide to make a new character and buy some slots. While I am putting money in the cash shop anyway, I might buy some other things just for fun. I can justify that a lot easier than I can paying money for a game I'm not spending that many hours on.

The secret world was fun for the first month, but I unsubbed. I didn't unsub because I wasn't having fun, I unsubbed because I wasn't playing. If I want to play again next month, which I might, I will have to consider whether it's worth the hassle to reactivate on the off chance that I play for a day and get distracted away from it again.

Exactly. And this is why, after paying for subscriptions pretty consistently from 2005 until I canceled my Eve sub a couple days ago, I will now refuse to ever pay a subscription for a video game again.

I hope SW does go F2P, so I get a chance to play it. But if it doesn't, oh well, GW2 is good too.

The Half Elf wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 14:10:If anyone has a 24 hour pass for The Secret World please email me through these forums. I love the idea but never got into the beta to really 'feel' out the game.

saluk wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 13:43:My problem with p2p is less a matter of how much I am spending, and more a psychological matter. Look at the last week of my GW2 time. I barely played, I've been busy with work etc. I may be a bit busy to play much this week too. Right now, I am still loving the game every time I play it, but I'm NOT playing often enough to really justify paying every month. Towards the end of the month, I would have to evaluate whether I want to keep paying for something I'm not really using.

On the other hand, I've filled up my character slots. At any point in the next few weeks I might decide to make a new character and buy some slots. While I am putting money in the cash shop anyway, I might buy some other things just for fun. I can justify that a lot easier than I can paying money for a game I'm not spending that many hours on.

The secret world was fun for the first month, but I unsubbed. I didn't unsub because I wasn't having fun, I unsubbed because I wasn't playing. If I want to play again next month, which I might, I will have to consider whether it's worth the hassle to reactivate on the off chance that I play for a day and get distracted away from it again.

F2P pays for itself if done right. I've forked over about two months worth of WoW subscription time in to their gemstore as I am sure is the case with many other players - although likely to a lesser extent.

Relying on box sales and vanity items requires a lot of faith in your product without subs to fall back on though and this is likely why it's not really the 'norm' in the industry. What I really hate is the fact that it seems parts of the industry are going in the opposite direction and using subscription-based models along with macrotransactions such as WoW and TSW.

My problem with p2p is less a matter of how much I am spending, and more a psychological matter. Look at the last week of my GW2 time. I barely played, I've been busy with work etc. I may be a bit busy to play much this week too. Right now, I am still loving the game every time I play it, but I'm NOT playing often enough to really justify paying every month. Towards the end of the month, I would have to evaluate whether I want to keep paying for something I'm not really using.

On the other hand, I've filled up my character slots. At any point in the next few weeks I might decide to make a new character and buy some slots. While I am putting money in the cash shop anyway, I might buy some other things just for fun. I can justify that a lot easier than I can paying money for a game I'm not spending that many hours on.

The secret world was fun for the first month, but I unsubbed. I didn't unsub because I wasn't having fun, I unsubbed because I wasn't playing. If I want to play again next month, which I might, I will have to consider whether it's worth the hassle to reactivate on the off chance that I play for a day and get distracted away from it again.

Fibrocyte wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 13:15:I have no problems with WoW's monthly subscription given the quality of the product, and so I'm still surprised that GW2 has no sub fee. I think they could have asked for some nominal amount, say $3/month, from their playerbase and not lost any players.

For most games... I would prefer a monthly subscription to THEIR F2P models. (Pay to be viable for progression)

But GW2's F2P model can't be beat... and I can't see going back to a subscription fee game unless it was ridiculously phenomenal.

Fibrocyte wrote on Sep 17, 2012, 13:15:I tried TSW on a 24-hour pass and was not impressed.

I have no problems with WoW's monthly subscription given the quality of the product, and so I'm still surprised that GW2 has no sub fee. I think they could have asked for some nominal amount, say $3/month, from their playerbase and not lost any players.

Well, they would have lost at least one!

I don't pay per month. I have no problems paying for a game, ONCE, and that's it. No monthly nickel & dime for me, please.

Name a single event in history where hatred, fear, and greed helped to solve a crisis.

I have no problems with WoW's monthly subscription given the quality of the product, and so I'm still surprised that GW2 has no sub fee. I think they could have asked for some nominal amount, say $3/month, from their playerbase and not lost any players.